Tikal

 

The mys­te­ri­ous and sto­ried city of Tikal – which still remains 80% undis­cov­ered lies deep with­in the untamed and wild jun­gle of North­ern Guatemala and was once one of the biggest Mayan cities on the plan­et. Believed to have been first occu­pied as ear­ly as 1000BC, Archae­ol­o­gists esti­mate that there once stood 3000 mon­u­ments with­in this sacred city – and today while some of these sacred sites have been lost with­in the jun­gle – fol­low­ing the mys­te­ri­ous col­lapse of Mayan soci­ety, there still stands stun­ning Temple’s, mighty Grand Plaza and fas­ci­nat­ing his­to­ry dat­ing from as far back as 200AD. Which com­bined with it’s unique set­ting and one of the great­est sun­ris­es and sun­sets on the plan­et make the ancient city of Tikal a true won­der of the world.  

Believed to have been ful­ly aban­doned in the 10th Cen­tu­ry, the ancient city, while known to locals was lost and for­got­ten and con­sumed by the jun­gle, until it’s redis­cov­ery in 1848 which bought it to the atten­tion of the mod­ern world. Fol­low­ing this a series of archae­o­log­i­cal explo­rations have tak­en place, includ­ing the most famous from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia from the mid 1950’s – 1970’s, where across 13 years only 640 acres of the city was re-dis­cov­ered. How­ev­er, land sur­veys and ariel recon­nais­sance still esti­mate that the more than 119,000 acres of Tikal remain unex­plored.  

Bought fur­ther to atten­tion of the west­ern world thanks to its use as a piv­otal loca­tion in the Star Wars film, Tikal is eas­i­ly reached from with­in Guatemala, and an explo­ration of it is tru­ly fas­ci­nat­ing. as a well-defined path allows you to trek across the ancient city through the jun­gle around the many tem­ples – includ­ing the icon­ic tem­ple IV- and still stand­ing mon­u­ments, which include the bur­ial sites of notable Mayan lead­ers.  

Fur­ther, with the temple’s all being climbable you’ll also be treat­ed – if you get there ear­ly and late enough – to an incred­i­ble and awe-inspir­ing sun­rise and sun­set from the sum­mit of the temple’s as you watch the incred­i­ble sun light up the vast Guatemalan jun­gle and the incred­i­ble city at the start of your day, and then after a spot of explo­ration you sum­mit a tem­ple again to watch the sun descend over a unique, mys­te­ri­ous and undis­cov­ered par­adise for a per­fect way to cap off your day explor­ing the unique won­der of the world that is Tikal.  

Where:

The sto­ried and mys­te­ri­ous city of Tikal is found deep with­in the undis­cov­ered Jun­gle of the Guatemalan city of Peten —  with the won­der being eas­i­ly accessed from the city of Flo­res.  

Getting there:  

Although 80% of Tikal remains unex­plored and is sur­round­ed by wild and beau­ti­ful jun­gle – get­ting to this ancient city can be incred­i­bly straight­for­ward – includ­ing for those who don’t opt for a tour to the won­der.  

First­ly you’ll need to get your­self to Guatemala, with the eas­i­est option being to fly into Guatemala city – with direct flights into the cap­i­tal being avail­able from all over South and North Amer­i­ca via mul­ti­ple routes.  

From Guatemala city the next stop is to get your­self to the Guatemalan city of Flo­res – which is achiev­able by either a full days car dri­ve – or much sim­pler by tak­ing a direct flight from Guatemala City – with flights cost­ing $100Usd and being our rec­om­mend route of trav­el and their being mul­ti­ple flights avail­able each day.  

From Flo­res you’re only an hour away from Tikal – and there are mul­ti­ple ways to get to the ancient city. First­ly and most cheap­ly you can opt for a chick­en bus – a small crowd­ed bus noto­ri­ous for peo­ple trav­el­ling with Chick­ens on that oper­ates direct to Tikal from Flo­res– it’s cer­tain­ly an expe­ri­ence ! 

You also have the option of a shut­tle ser­vice for a round trip and a bit more lux­u­ry, as well as self-dri­ving along some excel­lent roads or a tour – all of which can drop you right at the entrance of the won­der and allow you to begin your explo­ration of this incred­i­ble sto­ried and mys­te­ri­ous city.  

 

Best time to Visit: 

Guatemala is nor­mal­ly divid­ed into two sea­sons; rainy (June — Octo­ber) and dry (Novem­ber — May) with it not being advis­able to vis­it dur­ing the rainy sea­son when thun­der­storms, high humid­i­ty, down­pours flood­ing, and mud slides can be com­mon at Tikal.  

As a result of this we’d real­ly rec­om­mend vis­it­ing dur­ing the dry sea­son and, if pos­si­ble, tim­ing your vis­it to Tikal between the months of Novem­ber – March, when you can expect it to be hot – but in com­par­i­son to the months of March and April the heat to be more man­age­able and the crowds to be at a min­i­mum — giv­ing you an over­all more com­fort­able and enjoy­able expe­ri­ence.  

Once at the won­der, while the open­ing hours are offi­cial­ly 6am – 5pm, we’d real­ly advise mak­ing sure you time your vis­it to see the incred­i­ble sun­rise (which usu­al­ly beings around 5:45am) so you may have to hag­gle your way in — and then tak­ing a few hours explor­ing the park before rest­ing and then retun­ing to see the incred­i­ble sun­set just after 6pm to cap off an incred­i­ble day explor­ing the beau­ty of Tikal.  

Explore:   

Along­side being a site or archi­tec­tur­al, cul­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance, the won­der of Tikal is also found in its explo­ration – with it being one of the few ancient cities for which you can freely explore at your place with min­i­mal restric­tions – and in its mys­tery – with more than 80% — some 119,000 acres of the site being unex­ca­vat­ed  

Still that which has been dis­cov­ered – and has been fea­tur­ing in some of the Hol­ly­wood clas­sics – is tru­ly fas­ci­nat­ing with some hun­dreds of tem­ples, palaces, and plaza’s dat­ing back to the 4th cen­tu­ry sur­round­ed by immense jun­gle and wildlife, in what is a sto­ried reminder and what once was a fit­ting king­dom for the might­i­est of the Mayan king­doms.  

Made more enjoy­able by the min­i­mal crowds and spa­cious sites – com­bined with the stun­ning views from the eas­i­ly climbable pyra­mids from where the jun­gle stretch­es to the hori­zon, Tikal is best explored over the course of two days  — giv­ing you the chance to stay deep in the jun­gle, catch a stun­ning sun­rise, explore the won­der and if you’re lucky catch two of the great­est sun­sets on the plan­et.  

The below is our guide to explore and the sights not to miss when explor­ing the incred­i­ble king­dom of Tikal: 

Arriving at the City: 

Hav­ing got your­self to Flo­res and then onward on the bus­es to the Tikal Nation­al Park, you’ll be able to find the entrance to the park near the main Jun­gle Lodge – and well sign­post­ed as well.  

Hav­ing paid your 150 GTQ ($20 USD) entrance fee and being sure to get there for the sun­rise and when the doors open at 6am – we’d advise tak­ing a quick pho­to of the map at the entrance to make sure you can nav­i­gate tour way round. Look­ing at the map, you’ll find that Tikal is eas­i­ly explorable – not just because of the absence of restric­tions, but that the path through­out the park eas­i­ly con­nects you from one tem­ple to the next mak­ing your explo­ration incred­i­bly easy.  

Begin­ning on the track you’ll have to con­quer a brisk uphill climb of around a kilo­me­ter – pass­ing stun­ning native jun­gle you’ll grab your first view of the remains of Tikal and be able to explore the first pyra­mid and remains of this ancient city  — the East Pyra­mid.  

East Pyramid

One of the small­est pyra­mids on your jour­ney around Tikal, the east pyra­mid date back to 770AD and was a com­plete­ly sol­id pyra­mid and is believed to have been used for sac­ri­fices – both ani­mals and human, in an effort by Mayan’s to appease their gods.  

The east pyra­mid is also com­plete­ly climbable – and it’s one we’d real­ly rec­om­mend climb­ing for the incred­i­ble and sweep­ing views over both the neigh­bour­ing Jun­gle and Tikal. So after a lit­tle strug­gle up the steep steps to the top, it’s worth tak­ing a cou­ple of moments to take in the incred­i­ble ruins of this won­der – and on a clear day you’ll be able to spot the icon of Tikal – the mag­nif­i­cent Tem­ple IV in the dis­tance for both a taste of what’s to come and a tru­ly mag­i­cal pho­to of this incred­i­ble ancient city.  

Temple IV:

The most icon­ic and grand struc­ture of Tikal, the impos­ing Tem­ple IV stands at a mighty 230 feet tall and shoots out of the sur­round­ing jun­gle as the largest pyra­mid built by the Mayans and was once used for both sac­ri­fice and rev­er­ence dur­ing the height of Tikal as the home of Mayan cul­ture.  

Set across 22 sto­ries the incred­i­ble tem­ple IV is the pyra­mid you’ll see on pho­tos of Tikal – and is also com­mon­ly referred to as the Tem­ple of the two head­ed snakes, thanks to the still vis­i­ble if decayed ruins of two snake ser­pents that once stood at the base of the tem­ple.  

The real high­light of Tem­ple VI is the views offered from the sum­mit – as after you man­age to sum­mit the 22 sto­ries by using a care­ful­ly designed wood­en stair­case con­struct­ed at the back of the tem­ple – and once you reach the sum­mit you’ll be reward­ed with incred­i­ble views entire jun­gle from above the tree­line – as well as var­i­ous oth­er temple’s shoot­ing through the stun­ning nature of Tikal.  

A view made famous in the Star Wars episode IV film – the sum­mit of Tem­ple IV is a great place to enjoy some time to absorb the beau­ty of Tikal – as well as being the best place to watch the incred­i­ble sun­ris­es and sun­sets over Tikal – which are both awe-inspir­ing and stun­ning beau­ti­ful and encap­su­late the absolute best of this stun­ning won­der of the world.  

 Lost World Pyramid:

Climb­ing down from the incred­i­ble Tem­ple IV it’s time to explore some of the stun­ning struc­tures viewed from its sum­mit, as well as fur­ther explore the sto­ried led­gend of Tikal.  

Fol­low­ing the path round from Tem­ple IV and the track will lead you to the majes­tic Tem­p­lo Talud Tablero (lost world pyra­mid) – that is believed to have once been an admin­is­tra­tive build­ing built in a clas­sic Mayan style rem­i­nis­cent of those found at the equal­ly gor­geous won­der of Teoti­hua­can.  

Stand­ing 100 foot tall, the Lost World pyra­mid lives up to its billing — with the pyra­mid being sur­round­ed on either side by wild and untamed jun­gle and its exact con­struc­tion date unknown – but it is believed to be the old­est struc­ture so far dis­cov­ered with­in Tikal.  

With still grow­ing green­ery on its side, which adds to the explo­ration atmos­phere of the Lost Pyra­mid, you’ll also be able to sum­mit this intrigu­ing tem­ple from one of the four direct stair­cas­es that leads to its sum­mit – from where you can get stun­ning views look­ing back on Tem­ple IV and Tem­ples III emerg­ing through the wild jun­gle – which will be next to explore on your jour­ney round Tikal. 

Temple III:

Scal­ing down from the Lost World Pyra­mid and get­ting your­self back on the trail, the next pyra­mid you’ll come across is Tem­ple III — which is a raw and untamed tem­ple still cov­ered in jun­gle and nature.  

Offer­ing a real throw­back to the state of the tem­ples over the cen­tu­ry – there’s no climb­ing of Tem­ple III – instead you will have to mar­vel from the ground at the tem­ple which was once known as the Jaguar Priest tem­ple and – for Tikal Stan­dards – is con­sid­ered youth­ful, with the tem­ple hav­ing been con­struct­ed in around 800 AD.  

A sol­id struc­ture and round­ed on its cor­ners, Tem­ple III makes for stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties with the raw jun­gle cov­er­ing the low­er lev­els of this Tem­ple that gives you a per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to cap­ture the ruins of Tikal in their nat­ur­al state.   

The Grand Plaza:

Con­sid­ered the heart of Tikal, the might Grand plaza lies next on the trail – and it’s a stun­ning and well pre­served square of the city that gives you a fas­ci­nat­ing insight into life in Tikal.  

Sat against two fur­ther pyra­mids – Tem­ple I and Tem­ple II – the Grand Plaza once served as a meet­ing place and a square where pol­i­tics, sac­ri­fices and spots took place – and for explor­ers a stroll across the Grand Plaza is one rich in his­to­ry as you retrace the steps and set­tings where the his­to­ry of Tikal and the Mayans was writ­ten.  

A fas­ci­nat­ing place, and a great spot for a small break – the Grand Plaza is a sto­ried spot along your explo­ration of Tikal and one that lets you reflect on both the beau­ty, his­to­ry and mys­tery of this ancient site – before tak­ing on the two Temple’s in its fore­court.  

Tem­ple I – The focal point of the Grand Plaza – the tow­er­ing tem­ple I, at a height of 143 feet, was built as a tomb for the local king Jasaw K’awiil Chan and con­struct­ed in such a way as to appear that the King is sit­ting upon a care­ful­ly shaped Jaguar – giv­ing the tem­ple the affec­tion­ate nick­name of the Tem­ple of the Great Jaguar.  

Con­struct­ed in 734 AD, the Tem­ple of the Great Jaguar has offered incred­i­ble insight into the pur­pose and func­tion of Tikal, with many arte­facts hav­ing been recov­ered from its inte­ri­or where the tomb of King Jasaw K’awiil Chan lies.  

It’s also a fur­ther great spot with­in Tikal to sum­mit – with the views from its 143 foot sum­mit offer­ing panoram­ic views of the grand plaza and the neigh­bour­ing Tem­ple II.  

Tem­ple II – Mov­ing to the oth­er side of the Grand Plaza and direct­ly oppo­site the Tem­ple I is the short­er Tem­ple II – stand­ing at 125 feet and known as the tem­ple of the mask – as a result of its guard­ed con­struc­tion that pro­tects its inte­ri­or.  

Known as the Tem­ple of the mask – the Tem­ple II is again sub­mit­table, although this climb is a lit­tle tougher and riski­er, with the route up guid­ed only by a rick­ety and old­en wood­en stair­case with min­i­mal sup­port – with the thrilling jour­ney to its sum­mit being well reward­ed as you stare out over the Grand plaza, Tem­ple I and the lush green­ery of the mighty jun­gle that bor­ders Tikal and which will lead you to the final must see Tem­ple of Tikal.  

Tem­ple V Descend­ing from Tem­ple II and leav­ing the beau­ti­ful Grand Plaza behind you’ll head back on the track and make your way slow­ly through the Tikal jun­gle – where you might be accom­pa­nied by the occa­sion­al howler mon­key. Ven­tur­ing still along the path and you’ll even­tu­al­ly come to a large clear­ing, where before you the mighty Tem­ple V will appear.  

Set against the back­drop of the beau­ti­ful Jun­gle, the Tem­ple V is also the sec­ond biggest Tem­ple at Tikal – at a stag­ger­ing 187 metres and has been dat­ed as being con­struct­ed as far back as 700 AD with the archi­tec­tur­al design of the tem­ple also intrigu­ing offer­ing no con­crete idea as to its pur­pose and still baf­fling archae­ol­o­gists in the 21st cen­tu­ry.  

Anoth­er incred­i­ble – if steep tem­ple to climb, the sum­mit of Tem­ple V is a fit­ting finale to your explo­ration of the tem­ples of Tikal – with its view look­ing back over the Grand Plaza and the pre­vi­ous tem­ples and into the deep jun­gles of Tikal – which also make up the incred­i­ble beau­ty of this unique won­der of the world.  

Jungle Trekking:

Along­side the stun­ning tem­ples, part of the immense beau­ty of Tikal is the explo­ration of wild and untamed jun­gle that the paths through Tikal will take you.  

A tru­ly wild adven­ture, these paths will also give you a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore some of the world’s great­est jun­gle in a safe and free envi­ron­ment – and if you’re lucky come face to face with some of the incred­i­ble wildlife that calls Tikal home – which you’ll be sure to hear on your jour­ney through this ancient city.  

With most wake-up calls for sun­rise start­ing with the beau­ti­ful call of Tou­cans, you can also expect your trip round Tikal to see you encounter and hear wild howler and spi­der mon­keys, boar and if you’re lucky the occa­sion­al Jaguar – with the incred­i­ble wildlife of Tikal pro­vid­ing both a sound­track and adding to the beau­ty and won­der of the city of Tikal.  

Sunrise & Sunset at Temple IV:

Along­side tak­ing a full day to explore the beau­ti­ful tem­ples, jun­gle and mys­tery and sto­ried leg­end of Tikal – two immense expe­ri­ences that can’t be missed for both their spec­tac­u­lar views and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties are the stun­ning sun­ris­es and sun­sets over the ancient city.  

Giv­ing you a chance to cap­ture the best of this won­der with the sun bring­ing the won­der­ful jun­gle and the tem­ples to life – both the sun­rise and sun­set are best seen in our view from the 230 foot sum­mit of Tem­ple IV, from where you can enjoy sweep­ing panoram­ic views of the jun­gle with the mul­ti­ple tem­ples shoot­ing through the tops of the trees for a tru­ly stun­ning shot and mes­meris­ing view.  

While the park is open for sun­set, for those not stay­ing in the park the night before and who wish to see the incred­i­ble sun­rise (which we’d real­ly rec­om­mend) your only option is to jump on a chick­en bus at 3am in the morn­ing from Flo­res and hag­gle with the guard (be sure to bring cash) to let you into Tikal before sun­rise, where you’ll need a torch to help you nav­i­gate your way up the 22 sto­ries to the top of Tem­ple IV.  

Once there though you’re in for an absolute­ly stun­ning view and an incred­i­ble way to begin your explo­ration of the tru­ly unique won­der of the world that is the ancient city of Tikal.  

How long to stay:

While explorable over a whole day, giv­en Tikal’s loca­tion in the mid­dle of the Guatemalan jun­gle we’d real­ly rec­om­mend giv­ing your­self 2 days and 1 night – with the 1 night spent at the jun­gle lodge in the park for the best expe­ri­ence which will allow you to catch both the stun­ning sun­rise and sun­set over this stun­ning won­der.  

For the first day we’d rec­om­mend tim­ing your trip to arrive from Flo­res in the late morn­ing of the first day, where you’ll have enough time to explore the tem­ples in the after­noon and be able to time your vis­it to catch the stun­ning sun­set from the peak of tem­ple IV, before you can look for­ward to a day stay­ing in the Jun­gle lodge where the incred­i­ble sounds of the wildlife of Tikal will accom­pa­ny you to sleep.  

For day 2, it will be up ear­ly to catch the stun­ning sun­rise over the park again from the sum­mit of Tem­ple IV and enjoy some time trekking through the jun­gle with­in Tikal and catch­ing the last of the ruins, before mak­ing you way back to Flo­res on a mid after­noon bus.  

While achiev­able in a day from Flo­res, con­fin­ing your­self to one day will like­ly see you miss out on the sun­rise, or if you do man­age to jump on the ear­ly morn­ing bus leave the rest of your explo­ration of this ancient city in a tired state real­ly rak­ing the edge of it.  

So while it can be done in a day trip from Flo­res on bus, for the best Tikal expe­ri­ence and to expe­ri­ence the beau­ti­ful and mes­meris­ing sun­sets and sun­rise we’d real­ly rec­om­mend bud­get­ing 2 days and 1 night to explore this incred­i­ble ancient city.  

Top Tip:

While Tikal is beau­ti­ful dur­ing the day, it’s oth­er world­ly and breath-tak­ing when seen at sun­rise and sun­set – and offers a tru­ly unique and immense expe­ri­ence.  

So when vis­it­ing our first top tip would be to ensure that your stay at the won­der is spread over the course of two days, giv­ing you a chance to see at least one sun­rise and sun­set as well as spend­ing a day in the jun­gle lodge near­by for a true wilder­ness expe­ri­ence.  

Also be pre­pared to have some cash handy to ensure you can enter the ancient city before sun­rise if not doing a sun­rise to get the full effect (you may have to nego­ti­ate your way in) and be pre­pared to get to the sum­mit of Tem­ple IV an hour or so before sun­set to ensure you get the best spot to view the incred­i­ble sun­set.  

For this rea­son and to ensure you get the full expe­ri­ence at Tikal we’d advise against book­ing a tour to see the won­der, as you’ll like­ly miss out on either expe­ri­ence, be lim­it­ed in your time at the won­der and like­ly be over­charged. Instead we’d real­ly rec­om­mend for get­ting to Tikal to make your own path and hop on either a chick­en bus (for 20Q/2.50 USD) one way or get a more com­fort­ably shut­tle (60Q/8 USD) – which will give you the flex­i­bil­i­ty and expe­ri­ence of a true adven­ture at Tikal.  

As well as mak­ing your own way there, we’d encour­age you to be mind­ful of the sched­ule of the tour groups, as you can expect a mad rush around 9am when bus loads of tourists arrive which can also coin­cide with the harsh Guatemalan sun reach­ing full flight. So for this rea­son we’d advice being at the gates of Tikal at 6am (if not before for sun­rise) and giv­ing your­self a few hours to explore part of the ancient city, before head­ing back to your lodge to rest for a while and head­ing back to the won­der again in the mid-after­noon after the crowds and sun has dropped, before you take on the incred­i­ble sun­set.  

Giv­en the high heat, we’d also advise head­ing to Tikal with plen­ty of water and appro­pri­ate cloth­ing – includ­ing a rimmed hat, some shades, some long trousers and closed shoes – which are all essen­tial when both com­bat­ing the sun and trekking through the Tikal Jun­gle.  

Along­side remem­ber­ing to bring some cash to Tikal both for the entrance fee’s and sou­venirs – as there’s no ATM’s on site and cred­it cards aren’t accept­ed, we’d advise stock­ing up on some food and trail snacks in Flo­res before set­ting off – not only will this be cost effec­tive but will also allow you to pack your own home made break­fast which you can enjoy when sit­ting on top of Tem­ple IV while enjoy­ing the sun­rise.  

Final­ly for those who do dare to sub­mit the tem­ples – and we’d real­ly rec­om­mend it giv­en the incred­i­ble views from the sum­mit, you can expect min­i­mal health and safe­ty stan­dards, so be sure to take a firm grip of the han­dle­bars on the rick­ety stair­case to the top, and be sure to pace your­self, as you ascend to the sum­mit for one of the most incred­i­ble view on the plan­et look­ing out over the won­der of Tikal.  

Cost:

Hav­ing got your­self to Guatemala city, you can expect inter­nal flights to Flo­res – of which there are mul­ti­ple each day to cost you around $100 Usd, and from there you have the option of either a tour – which we wouldn’t rec­om­mend, a shut­tle bus or a chick­en bus to get from Flo­res to Tikal.  

For those tak­ing a tour you can expect prices to begin at at least $80 Usd, and be absent sun­rise and sun­set views, with the sun­set tours cost­ing an extra Q230/$30Usd and requir­ing a very ear­ly start. For those who opt to explore the won­der, a return shut­tle bus from Flo­res will cost you Q60/$8Usd or return by chick­en bus – which is slight­ly less glam­orous but much more inter­est­ing cost­ing you Q40/$5usd round trip.  

Upon arriv­ing at Tikal you’ll need cash in hand as there’s no atms and cred­it cards are not accept­ed and you can expect to pay Q150/$20 Usd for entry into the sight for an all day tick­et that allows you to come and go as you please.  

If you do opt to stay overnight at one of the jun­gle lodges – which is some­thing we’d real­ly rec­om­mend to get to see both the sun­rise and sun­set at Tikal then you should bud­get for an extra Q425/$55 for a night stay – while you can expect basic facil­i­ties the chance to fall asleep with the sound­track of the jun­gle next a won­der of the world more than makes a stay in the lodge worth­while.  

There­fore account­ing for food and the occa­sion­al sou­venir as well as some extra expens­es we’d sug­gest bud­get­ing at least Q1550 / $200 Usd for a trip to Tikal from Flo­res.  

Fun Fact:  

Along­side get­ting a star­ring role in the Star Wars a New hope film (the scene where the mil­len­ni­um Fal­con lands on the fic­tion­al plan­et of Yavin) the oth­er world­ly nature of Tikal and its leg­end is also reflect­ed in the fact more than 80% — some 574 km2 — of the site cur­rent­ly remains undis­cov­ered, with a jour­ney through the so far uncov­ered ancient city of Tikal being a true adven­ture and a stun­ning explo­ration.  

Best photo spot: 

While the whole of Tikal is spe­cial, there are a few must have pho­to spots that are not to be missed and which you should keep your eyes out for when explor­ing.  

The first – and per­haps trick­i­est is the beau­ti­ful wildlife that call the jun­gle which you’ll be trav­el­ling through home. A real test of your luck and you’ll need to be quick on the cam­era – but if the con­di­tions are right and you do get lucky there’s a real chance of snap­ping some of the rarest wildlife on the plan­et – includ­ing the elu­sive Jaguar, so we’d real­ly encour­age you to keep the cam­era to hand when trav­el­ling through the beau­ti­ful city of Tikal.  

For the ancient city itself, there’s no doubt that the pho­to spots come from the ruins and the tem­ples with the grand plaza being a unique and fas­ci­nat­ing shot – as are the over­grown tem­ple III and Lost Pyra­mid tem­ple – whose state of over­grown veg­e­ta­tion give a real mys­te­ri­ous feel to the ancient city.  

But the real jew­el and must have shot is at the sum­mit of Tem­ple IV. With the climb up the 22 sto­ries to the top of the 230-foot base of the pyra­mid reward­ing you with stun­ning and sweep­ing views dur­ing the day, where you can get panoram­ic views of the beau­ti­ful tem­ples ris­ing above the sur­round­ing jun­gle and real soak in the beau­ty of the ancient city of Tikal for a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing shot. 

The views from the sum­mit of Tem­ple IV get even bet­ter at both sun­rise and sun­set, with the ear­ly morn­ing trip to the tem­ple – which may require you to nego­ti­ate your way into the park before the offi­cial open­ing hours – giv­ing you the chance to expe­ri­ence the ear­ly morn­ing sun light­ing up the whole of the ancient park against the back­drop of the Jun­gle for a tru­ly spe­cial way to begin your explo­ration of Tikal. While sun­rise will see the great jun­gle glow as the peaks of the tem­ples shoot­ing through the jun­gle glis­ten and reflect the incred­i­ble sun­rise for an oth­er-world­ly beau­ti­ful and inspi­ra­tional shot – and the per­fect way to cap off your day explor­ing the mys­te­ri­ous and sto­ried won­der of the world that is the ancient city of Tikal.